A Curse Unfulfilled
by Dark8ngel
Summary: Eleven years after the death of Lord Voldemort things have returned back to their sleepy and calm ways. However a few unbreakable promises still go unfulfilled. Rebecca, the daughter of two prominent figures in the wizarding community, finds herself caught up in one such case. As she seeks safety in the last place she ever expected she finds her secrets becoming harder to hide.
1. Secrets and Lies

A Curse Unfulfilled

Her name was Rebecca. She was of slender build and not particularly tall but much like her mother had a stern demeanor. She commanded attention every time she walked into a room. Her parents were famous and well known in the wizarding world, she however was not. Upon her birth she had been secreted away to live with a family in the United States. Upon coming of age she was sent to school in the States where she was to live until she ran away at the age of 17. While her parentage had been kept for the most part a secret she still knew who they were, even if they had never officially met. Of course now, 11 years later, she was a long way from her past. Her current situation found her in the great hall of Hogwarts dueling three potential candidates all vying for the position of professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Of course how she found herself in her current situation was fascinating and perhaps a bit fateful.

She had gone to Hogwarts to speak to the Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall. Upon walking into the school she had found a score of professors cheering on their favorites in a mass duel. It was somewhat borderline chaos really. Above all this sat the headmistress, watching with a strict eye, taking notes. Upon watching herself she could quickly deduce who was indeed the best of this foray, needless to say though they were all quite pitiful. After a few minutes of watching the remaining duelers had dwindled from the original fifteen to just three. Seeing all this gave her another idea and she quickly abandoned her original plan and pulled out her wand and stepped into the middle of the ring of onlookers and faced the three remaining candidates. The room suddenly got very silent and after a few minutes of confusion the three men faced her as one. In the next minute she was able to disarm two of the men an now only faced one. He was undoubtedly the most qualified of all the contestants, however still no real match for her skills. She had been lucky in one aspect that she had inherited her parent's great skills with magic, most in particular her fathers. Wanting to show off her skills she didn't finish him off too quickly, instead she toyed with him. Playing a game of cat and mouse certainly got the onlookers riled up. After a few minutes she had determined that enough time had passed and quickly disarmed her opponent. With that the Great Hall fell silent and she politely bowed to her opponent and turned to stare up at the end of the stage.

She had only seen the professor once before when she had first started her schooling but nothing about her had change. The look she was receiving now was far harsher than the one she gotten so many years ago. She however would not back down. She stood tall and proud and looked her straight in the eyes. Her heart beat in her chest afraid that she might be recognized, her secrets spilled out into the open. After a brief moment however Professor McGonagall rose from her seat.

"Name?"

"Rebecca Mitchell." She responded hoping her voice didn't show any of her nervousness.

The following minute was silent as she was no doubt ably being sized up.

"Follow me." Was all that was said as she walked towards the stairs and dismounted her podium. "Darnahill please stay. The rest of you may leave." Was thrown out as an afterthought as she strode across the hall to the entrance.

Rebecca scrambled through the crowd of onlookers, running slightly to catch up. The Headmistress walked at a brisk pace but it was one she was able to match, falling in line a few steps behind. She was led through the school until they came to a stop in front of a stone gargoyle. McGonagall muttered a few words that she did not catch and the gargoyle slid aside revealing a staircase that circled up to the top of the tower. At the top was an office elaborately decorated with many different portraits of previous Headmasters with that of Albus Dumbledore residing behind the desk. A large bookshelf was jammed pack with books and a few odd instruments here and there. An old hat sat in one corner towards the top looking down on the room. Towards the far end of the room sat a desk with one chair behind it and two in front. Three stacks of papers sat on the desk. For all that sat in the room it was in all essence tidy. There was an apparent order to the room. Several cabinets also sat around the edges hiding whatever contents were inside of them and a large trunk, simple in design, sat off to the left side behind the desk.

McGonagall sat down in the chair behind the desk, which gave her a very stern and formidable appearance. Rebecca sat in one of the two chairs in front. The chair was by no means comfy and made her feel even more uncomfortable. Although she had a feeling that was the intention. She however picked the chair that gave her the best view of the majority of the portraits. If she was going to be watched she wanted to be able to see the reactions.

"That was quite some impressive wand work Ms. Mitchell. I will admit I am somewhat glad to see someone better than Mr. Darnahill in that duel. However I do not know you and seeing as you did just show up, I will have to ask you a series of questions before I consent to hiring you."

Rebecca let out slow and quiet sigh of relief. This wouldn't be as hard as she imagined.

"So to begin I must ask where did you go to school?"

"Ilvermorny" It was easy enough. Her only hope was McGonagall wouldn't go poking around asking for verification or references seeing as she hadn't actually graduated. Although given the current look she was getting and the well known fact that American's looked down on all the other schools she figured it unlikely.

"I see. So what brings you here?" The distaste in her voice was evident.

"A new beginning. I didn't exactly get along well in America." True enough.

"How so?"

Now this was getting tougher. How far could she talk her way into this without giving her truths away. "You see my family ties are with Beauxbaton and as most know it is greatly frowned upon in the States. I was teased a lot for it. Life was a lot harder there for me than it has been here."

"And how long have you been here?" Was the quick reply.

"Eleven years."

"And how old are you?"

Simple enough question she did look younger than her actual age. "Twenty-nine." She added a year. American's didn't graduate until they were eighteen and there was no exception to that rule.

McGonagall raised an eyebrow and jotted a few notes. Then looked at her analyzing her, trying to determine if she was lying no doubt. "Any teaching experience?"

Ah the catch. "Honestly no." She didn't. Her last eleven years had been spent hiding and pretty much in solitude. Her saving grace had been her father's store of gold he had left to her after his death. "But I've studied quite a bit and have a wealth of knowledge." She hastily added trying to redeem herself even if it sounded cheesy.

"And what makes you want to be a teacher here at Hogwarts?"

This is where things get tough. She emptied her mind and worked on formulating the best response she could. "I've spent the last eleven years exploring and doing a lot of studying and I found myself wanting to settle down more and more and well I thought I mind as well put my knowledge to some use by sharing it with others through teaching. We are in a more relaxing time now that Voldemort is gone for good." She noted a slight pause in McGonagall's note taking at the mention of the name but no other reaction. She of course had no fear because as she said he was gone for good and had been for eleven years. "I however believe that peace cannot always remain and we must always be vigilant. Thus it is important to see that our future witches and wizards are well educated and done so properly."

"Yes indeed." She had finished making her notes and was now thinking very hard. "I would like to see an outline of your lesson plans in detail for the next month and what textbooks you'll be using. You may also give a general description of the topics you plan to cover for the rest of the year. I'd like to see you back here in a week's time with this. If it is up to standards you can consider yourself the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

She sighed, a bit more heavily than she intended but she had passed questioning. "Thank you. Might I also have a list of books used in previous years so that I might have a better understanding what has and hasn't been covered for the older students."

"Yes give me a few minutes." She got up and went to one of the cabinets nearest to the desk and pulled out one of the drawers and started riffling through the files.

Rebecca relaxed a little bit and looked around the office a bit more. The cabinet nearest the desk had multiple drawers and was it seemed a file cabinet. After a minute of riffling around McGonagall pulled out a few sheets and papers and proceeded to sit back down and copy off information from them. Next to the cases of books was a tall cabinet with two doors. A third cabinet with multiple small drawers sat a little bit behind her to right surrounded on three sides by numerous portraits of snoozing professors. In fact most of the portraits that were still occupied contained sleeping occupants. Only a few still gazed curiously down at her. Dumbledore was smiling softly at her from behind McGonagall. She stared back at him slightly entranced.

"Here you go."

Her gaze was broken as she looked back at the Headmistress who was holding out a sheet of paper for her. She took it nodding her thanks and quickly glanced over it. "Thank you." She finally acknowledge.

With that she was show her way back out and they parted in the main entrance. McGonagall heading back into the main hall were a few professors and Darnahill still remained.


	2. The Simple Life

Upon reaching the main gate Rebecca took a second to look around her. All seemed quiet and normal, not a person in sight. That, however, meant nothing to her. Looks could be deceiving and once she left the protection of the school grounds she'd be vulnerable. It's what drew her to Hogwarts. It's vast array of spells protecting its borders, especially with those added after the downfall of Voldemort, made the place safe from attack and appealing to one seeking a safe haven. Of course her timing it seemed had been impeccable. She would of course be more so in the spotlight as a professor but she'd also be surrounded by people all day long making an attack on her less likely. Of course should one happen lots of questions would be asked and she would not be the only one having to answer them. That was one thing she was sure of. He would not attack her publically unless he was desperate. Desperation, however, was coming closer and closer and she was growing weaker and more vulnerable thus her need for more drastic measure no matter how unpleasant they may be.

Casting her senses about her she could feel no one watching her. Quickly she cast a disappearing charm about herself. It was in a sense quite unnerving to look down and see nothing where your body should be, but it was effective none the less. She waited a minute just to be sure no one was lurking and then stepped over the threshold and quickly apparated.

She landed outside of a cave and quickly took a step forward. As soon as she stepped inside the noise died away. The cave was located on a cliff side above the ocean. Without a muffling charm the sound of the water crashing up against the rocks could be deafening. There was a small ledge just in front of the cave upon which she could land on. She had been here for a week now and she was debating whether she should move to another safe place or not. With all the enchantments of protections upon it and with only one valid, albeit precarious, entrance it was the most easily defendable place she had been in over the last three months.

The interior was nothing special nor particularly large. There was enough room for her to lay out a mat upon which she slept on and to make a small fire. Her only possessions were contained in her bag that had a spell placed on it to allow her to fit as much stuff in it as she wished. The only stuff she really pulled out of it now was her bedding and cooking supplies. Now she went over to the corner and retrieved it and sat down on her makeshift bed. She sifted through and found a quill and some parchment. Finally she pulled out the list she had been given and set it next to her. She got to work making out a list of required text and subjects to cover including homework and exams.

A week later she walked out of Hogwarts having spent half the day being questioned and analyzed. It had been all worth it though. After the Headmistress was satisfied she got a tour of the school and was show her classroom, office, and quarters where she would be staying. She was to return a week before the students arrived to get settled in and attend staff meetings. Plans were in motion and there was no stopping them now.


End file.
